


On the Fourth Day, Part 1: Everybody Out

by Setcheti



Series: Scientific Rescuing [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 14:32:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By the end of the fourth day, everyone was tired and ready to head home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Fourth Day, Part 1: Everybody Out

**Author's Note:**

> This story alludes to some dark themes – they aren’t spelled out because I think it’s more effective if your mind fills in those blanks with horrors only *you* can imagine.

Teddy Williams was tired.

Four days ago, Night Vale had experienced its first real earthquake. The earthquake had caused a sinkhole which had sucked down an entire city block – the city block which just happened to have the town’s hospital on it. Leaving Teddy the only remaining licensed medical doctor in town. So he’d been going flat-out for four days, and he was absolutely beat.

At least he had his bowling alley back, though. The second morning after the earthquake, Scott Thomas had shown up in front of the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Park with a fire truck and several of his firefighters – when he wasn’t shilling for the local chapter of the NRA, Scott was Night Vale’s fire chief. They had brought their fire hose in through the front door, turned it on, and blasted the tiny little invaders behind the Lane 5 pin retrieval area to kingdom come with a high-pressure stream of water. They hadn’t even made much of a mess. So the bowling alley was invader-free after that and therefore safe to bring casualties into. To bowl in, too, but that was a consideration for later since most of the casualties weren’t up to bowling.

There had been a lot of casualties. Between the earthquake, the sinkhole and the aftershocks, a lot of people had gotten hurt. Some Teddy could heal and send home, others had to be taken care of the old fashioned way. Supplies were low, he was having to improvise a lot, but so far everything had still been pretty much okay. The more serious injuries didn’t start to come in until the next day, when the worst of the aftershocks had mostly ended and Scott and his boys were able to start going farther down into the crushed and twisted remains of the hospital to look for survivors. They’d spent every daylight hour since and as much of the nighttime ones as they could out at the site, working alongside the construction crew that was trying to stabilize things so the still-crumbling edge of the sinkhole wouldn’t suck down any more buildings – although they’d evacuated all of the closest ones, just in case. Teddy had seen a lot of the fire team’s handiwork, but tonight was the first night he’d actually seen any of the team themselves inside the bowling alley.

Scott had come in just after eight and parked all of his guys at a table near the back of the bowling alley, making them fill out reports and just generally decompress. He’d been insistent with them that they all had to get checked out before they could leave, and equally insistent with Teddy that they could wait; he’d said none of them had any injuries that weren’t minor. Teddy had kept half an eye on the table anyway, but all they’d done was sit there and drink coffee or soda and talk quietly and then gradually one-by-one wander by him to get checked and then head out to go home – at this point they were all gone except for one guy who was patently avoiding Teddy and one other guy who had apparently fallen asleep while he was checking his messages, the phone still in his hand and his head on the table. Teddy had made up his mind to check that guy really carefully once he got over there, just in case. The local firefighters, even the volunteers, were all ‘tough guys’; he wouldn’t put it past any of them to downplay a more serious injury, even though Scott would kick their asses from one end of the bowling alley to the other for doing it. That thought made him smile, just a little. Scott was very protective of ‘his guys’ and they were a tight little team, the polar opposite of Night Vale’s self-obsessed sheriff and his steadily diminishing squad of Secret Police minions. Teddy decided to give Scott – who he could see heading in the direction of the sleeping firefighter – a few minutes while he checked out one more patient, and then he’d go over and see about the last two of Scott’s guys himself.

 

Scott Thomas looked around the bowling alley with satisfaction. It had been a long day – a long four days, actually – but he and his guys had done their best and now everything was as wrapped up as it was going to get from their end. The last of the casualties were in, and most of them were clearing out of the bowling alley, going home or going to stay with someone if their home had been rendered unlivable by the earthquake. Scott had brought all of his guys in with the last delivery of casualties, parked them all at an empty table and made them do reports so they could decompress before going home themselves, and made them file past Teddy, the bowling alley’s owner and the last living licensed physician in Night Vale on their way out so that he could do a quick check to make sure they were okay. Most of them were already gone, his lieutenant had wandered across the room to talk to someone – avoiding Teddy, Scott was sure of it – and the last of the guys had fallen asleep with his head on the table while texting someone. Scott ambled over and took a look at the phone, smirking when he saw what was on the screen.

[I love yo]

 “You sap,” he told the sleeping man. He picked up the phone and added the ‘u’, then hit Send. A reply came back almost immediately.

[Hi Scott. :) ]

A week ago that would have surprised Scott, but over the last few days he’d gotten used to it. [I’ll bring him home soon. Him and Tony are beat, not letting them drive tonight.]

[Thanks for that. Take Ami home when you come? We’ve been hearing noises, don’t want her out on her bike tonight.]

[Yup, can do.] Scott thought a minute, frowning down at the sleeping man, then took a few steps away and dialed the number he’d been texting. “Yeah,” he answered when the other person picked up and said his name questioningly. “I already made this call to Tony’s wife, thought I’d better make it to you too…” The other man reminded him of something. “Yes, I know you were watching, but I’m not sure you saw everything they saw – just what they told me after Hiram pulled them out of the hole was what made me call everyone in and pack it up. Our debriefing tomorrow afternoon is going to be hell. I’m just warning you he might be a little off tonight, so be prepared – if you hit a sensitive spot, even unintentionally, he’s likely to break like a cheap dam.”

A question was asked, and Scott flinched. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was – sometimes I forget he’s not from here. I think he’ll be okay on that score, though, given the circumstances. Let me know if you think he’s not and I’ll talk to him.”

An affirmative response, and then the other man said something that made both of Scott’s eyebrows go up. “I thought they’d worked that out? Especially after…oh. Well fuck, I guess I can understand that. Yeah, of course I will – nobody messes with my guys, you know that.” He snorted. “Of course he is, Cecil. And it’s about time we got out of here anyway. Twenty minutes, tops. Tell Ami to stay right where she’s at until I get there…okay, thanks. Bye.”

He disconnected the call and put the phone back down where he’d found it, waving over Tony Fiarelli, his lieutenant. “Let’s get both of you checked out, then I’m taking you home. I already called your wife and told her your girlfriend was here making sure all your equipment still worked so she wouldn’t have to do it herself.”

Tony slapped him on the shoulder. “Your wife called me earlier and asked if I could take a picture so she’d remember what you looked like. She seemed pretty disappointed after I sent it to her, so I sent her one of Espinoza and she cheered right up.”

“Funny, your wife had the same reaction when I sent her a picture of him yesterday.” Scott slapped him back, making him wince. “And yes, you have to get that injury seen to, you idiot.” He caught Teddy’s eye and jerked his head, and the bowling alley owner headed in their direction. “We’re clearing out as soon as you’ve seen these last two stubborn bastards,” he announced, not too loudly, when Teddy got close enough. “I don’t anticipate any trouble, but if you have some, call me. I know there were some cops out on the streets earlier.”

Teddy shrugged. “I’m not worried about it, but thanks. How bad…”

“They’re mostly just worn out – Fiarelli and Espinoza are my rope guys, they’ve had a hell of a day. Hell of a week, actually.”

“Yeah, haven’t we all.” Teddy raised an eyebrow at Tony. “Okay, I _know_ you’re hurt – you’ve been ducking me for an hour, you big baby. Where is it, someplace sensitive?”

Tony made a face. “Nah, just on my shoulder – but it just finally started to hurt less, I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.” He stiffly peeled off his shirt with Scott’s help, though, and turned around so Teddy had access to the square gauze bandage taped down over his left shoulder blade. “There, go ahead, hurt me.”

“Remind me to tell your mother what a big boy you were about this,” Teddy snarked at him. He peeled back the gauze…and then stopped, mouth open in astonishment. “What the hell…these are claw marks! What did you run into that did this, mole people?”

Tony snorted. “No, Hiram. He was pulling me and Carlos out of the hole, he didn’t have time to be careful – he barely got to us in time as it was.”

“It was…well, I called it after that,” Scott tacked on. “My guys may have a dangerous job, and they do it, but that was way too close. And Hiram’s great to help, but he’s not getting any younger so he can’t do as much as he’d like to. The casualties we brought in this last trip were it.”

He’d mentioned that when he’d brought his guys in earlier, but Teddy hadn’t thought much about it at the time. “You mean there are still…”

“No.” The word dropped like a guillotine blade. “No, there aren’t. Anything down there that isn’t dead…well, it should be, or it will be soon.”

“Yeah, I’d have made sure with dynamite if we’d had some,” Tony chimed in, letting out an involuntary yelp when Teddy _pushed_ on the shallow furrows Hiram’s claws had left to close them. “Carlos said he could make some, though, if he had the stuff.”

“He said he could make thermite,” Scott corrected. Teddy hadn’t reacted to the two mentions of Carlos by his first name so far, but if Cecil was right that might not last – the guy was tired and cranky, they all were. “He told you dynamite was nitro and one good unexpected aftershock would rearrange the two of you into a pile of parts before you could drop it down the hole.”

“Hey, as long as it goes boom and I don’t get eaten alive, it works for me,” Tony countered. Teddy _pushed_ again, but this time he only grunted and hissed. “Dammit. Am I done?”

“Why, do you want a sucker?”

The larger man looked over his shoulder hopefully. “Grape?”

“Cute. Okay, victim number two?”

“Rope burns,” Scott told him. “Both hands.” He helped Tony get his shirt back on – poor guy could barely lift his arms – and jerked his head to let him know he wanted him to stay close. He shook the sleeping man’s shoulder. “C’mon Spiderman, time to get your hands fixed so we can go home.”

The sleeping man swatted at him, and then yelped when one bandaged hand actually connected. He sat up, scowling, flexing that hand and rubbing his eyes with the back of the other. “Dammit.”

“You’ll be singing that in a different key in a few seconds,” Tony told him, slapping him on the back good-naturedly. He angled an odd look at Teddy, though; the bowling alley owner’s mouth had dropped open. “What?”

Teddy’s stunned expression also had Scott’s attention. “No,” he insisted in a low voice. “Whatever it is, no. My guys have been through hell today, so whatever that was you thought when you saw Espinoza here, we aren’t going there right now.”

Teddy blinked. Espinoza…oh, that must be Carlos’s last name; he’d never known it. “I thought he was at the house with Cecil.”

Scott shook his head. “He’s a certified first-responder, Teddy, he was where he was supposed to be – and he’s the only search-and-rescue qualified climber we’ve got. Half of the people you worked on today would still be in the hole if it wasn’t for him and Tony.”

Teddy glanced at Tony, who had plopped down in the chair next to Carlos and was also frowning now; he was a good five inches taller than the scientist, and half again as broad across the shoulders. Although Carlos was looking a lot less like a scientist right now that he usually did in jeans and a t-shirt that had seen better days, his arms surprisingly muscular, and his dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that was chalky with dust. Teddy shook his head again. It was like looking at a trick picture, you think you’re seeing one thing and you’re actually seeing something – or in this case someone – else. Still, though… “Someone needed to be with Cecil…”

“That would be my niece, Ami.” Scott raised an eyebrow. “You really think Carlos would have left him alone with two broken legs, Teddy? Ami sprained her wrist that first day at the site, so she was sidelined anyway. She’s been manning the sensors and passing things along to us on the radios, and when Cecil’s awake he’s been helping her – he’s bored out of his mind already, I even took some of the kids’ board games over there yesterday so she’d have something to keep him busy with.” He waved a hand. “And he was texting Carlos when we came in and sat down, I think he’s been borrowing Ami’s phone.” He frowned again. “So, do we still have a problem?”

Teddy recollected himself. “We didn’t have a problem before, I was just surprised.” He responded to the questioning look with a frown of his own and a sharp shake of his head. “No, really. I’d heard him on the radio every day at noon with Cecil, I was just surprised.” Scott accepted that with a nod and moved marginally out of his way, but he was still almost hovering. Teddy stopped himself from rolling his eyes; Scott was kind of overprotective even on a good day, and today had apparently been a worse day than Teddy had known it was. “Okay, Carlos, let me hurt you and then everyone can go home.”

Carlos was still rubbing his eyes, trying to wake up; it was fairly obvious that he had missed most of the exchange that had been going on over his head, and not just because he was the shortest person there. “’M fine, they’re just rope burns.”

“Yeah, on _both hands_ ,” Scott countered. “Quit arguing or I’m telling your boyfriend what a crazy-ass bastard you are when you climb.”

That got a grin. “He knows, believe me.” But he held out one hand when Teddy reached for it…and then he blinked, and blinked again, looking suddenly wary. “Teddy.”

“Carlos,” Teddy responded, keeping his voice level. He unwound the bandage wrapped around the scientist-rescuer’s palm and made a face. “Yeah, that’s a rope burn, alright, but it’s not too bad – you still have skin left. What happened to your gloves?”

Carlos’s free hand went to his mouth to cover a yawn; he also shuddered, just a little, which was unexpected. “Lost them in the hole. I’ll have to order a new pair.”

Scott was giving Teddy a look that warned him not to pursue it, so he didn’t. “Okay,” Teddy said, to both of them. He _pushed_ on the hand he was holding, making Carlos hiss, and then reached for the other hand. “Anything else?”

“He probably got clawed about the same as Tony did…”

Carlos shook his head. “Nope, he snagged my harness instead. Speaking of…”

“We’ll sort your gear out of the pile and you can get it later,” Scott told him. “It won’t hurt the ropes to stay where they’re at until tomorrow.”

“Probably not, no – they’re not wet or anything. But we’re going to have to go over them, I noticed some of them were starting to show frays.”

“Tomorrow,” Scott repeated. “After I’ve read all the reports and we’ve had our debriefing.”

“Jesus.”

“I’d be more than happy to let him run that meeting. You wanna call him?”

Carlos shook his head again. “I lost his number years ago; I think he moved. One of the angels might know where he went, I hear they all went to his birthday party that one year.”

Scott grinned at him. “You are so going to hell…oh wait, you already moved here.” He cocked a questioning eyebrow at Teddy, who nodded that he was done, and then he hauled the smaller man up out of his chair and gave Tony a less-gentle shove to get him off his. “Okay, I’m taking my guys home now. Remember, if you have any trouble, call me.”

“I don’t expect to, but thanks,” Teddy repeated, waving him off. “Go on, get out of here. Get those two home before you have to carry them.”

He turned away, heading in the direction of the rest of his remaining patients, and Scott herded Tony and Cecil out of the bowling alley. He could still feel Teddy’s eyes following him out, though, and he frowned. The bowling-alley owner may have just been tired and surprised or it may have been something else, but that wasn’t his business and he wasn’t going to poke around in it; he’d tell his wife and let her do it instead. He was glad Cecil had given him a heads-up, though; none of his guys had needed shit dumped on them tonight, especially not the two he was about to take home. Cecil could straighten his cousin out later, and maybe clue him in on the ‘drugged-up announcer’ act they’d been pulling every day on the radio at the same time. Scott knew why they were doing it, and he agreed with their reasons and had even been helping them, but it looked like they hadn’t had a chance to clue Teddy in. Or maybe they had a reason for not telling him…but again, that wasn’t Scott’s business, and he was pretty sure he wanted to keep it that way.

 

Teddy watched the taller man – quite a bit taller, even though Teddy wasn’t anywhere near short himself – make tracks out of the bowling alley, still frowning. Night Vale’s fire chief was a good man, very protective, and quick to notice when something wasn’t right. Still, though, he wouldn’t have known he needed to get between Teddy and Carlos unless Cecil had said something to him.

Which was probably a good thing, even though right now Teddy didn’t like it very much. He was man enough to admit – to himself, anyway – that he was tired, physically and emotionally, and that being so tired made him a little more prone to be unreasonable and snap at people than usual. He always said pretty much what he thought, but when he was really tired or drunk he tended to say things he actually felt sorry for later. So he was glad Scott had headed him off, and only a little less glad that Cecil had told Scott he needed to.

But he still wasn’t glad at all that Carlos had been out with Scott and his guys at the sinkhole instead of at home taking care of Cecil, who was still on really strong narcotics that were making him loopy as hell. And a part of Teddy that was a little less than logical was now wondering if the dramatic ‘scientific rescue’ four days before had been as much about the scientist’s feelings for Cecil as Teddy had originally thought. What if Carlos was just an adrenaline junky? ‘Spiderman’, Scott had called him. Yeah, he did seem to have some kind of deeper feelings for Cecil, that was obvious, but what if they weren’t as deep as Cecil thought they were – or as deep as Teddy had been starting to believe they were? What if the game-playing was going to start up again after a while when Carlos got bored?

The part of Teddy’s brain that wasn’t exhausted and illogical tried to remind him that his cousin was a grown man, that in spite of the drugs he’d obviously been with-it enough to talk to people, and that Teddy wasn’t actually privy to a lot of what went on between Cecil and Carlos in their relationship. Failing to make that point stick, it reminded him that he still needed to finish up at the bowling alley before he could go home for the night. That worked. Teddy put the other thoughts he’d been having aside and finished up with the casualties who were still in the bowling alley. There weren’t very many, most of them had already left to go somewhere else. And the few who couldn’t leave were being looked after by two nurses Scott and his guys had rescued from the collapsed remains of the hospital, and the nurses were staying at the bowling alley and were a lot less tired than Teddy was. So after a little more poking around, Teddy got into his truck and drove home.

Exhausted as he was, though, once he was home and had showered and changed into clean sleep clothes…he couldn’t sleep. He poked around his house, doing a few little things but not really accomplishing anything, and then he decided that maybe a drink would help. So he had one.

And then he had another one, which did make him feel less wired although it didn’t immediately make him feel sleepy. He took that drink over to his favorite chair and sat down, figuring that if he just sat there for a while boredom would join up with the alcohol and put him to sleep. And that might have worked – it had worked in the past a time or two – if he hadn’t spotted the album. It was worn and red and all the way across the room on a shelf, and he managed to last almost five minutes before getting up to get it and bringing it back to the chair to join him and the remains of his drink.

At first, he just held it on his lap, stroking the faded cover. He knew he shouldn’t open it, he knew he shouldn’t. No good ever came of him getting into the album, it had a bad effect on him – and that bad effect extended to Cecil, who would be pissed the next day once he realized what Teddy had been doing. Finally, though, he opened it anyway, telling himself he’d just look at the first few pages, which were all baby pictures. Not of him, his mother had kept his in his own album, a blue one that was put up safe somewhere else. No, these were of Cecil.

When Cecil had been conceived, Teddy’s mother, Bea, had started telling everyone that Cecil’s mother Mary was her sister; and since it was Night Vale, most people just accepted that and never thought anything else about it. Teddy had been fifteen at the time, so of course he knew better…but he also knew why his mother had done it. Even at his age he’d realized that Mary wasn’t going to be competent to look after a baby, at least not all the time. And  since it was possible that Teddy’s father and Cecil’s father were either one and the same or at least related, Bea had decided they were related and that was all there was to it. That, and she’d been unable to have any more kids after having Teddy, so Cecil had pretty much been raised as his baby brother. Hence the album, which had been just as lovingly kept as Teddy’s own.

Cecil had been a cute little kid, all messy brown hair and big smiles. There were pictures of him doing ‘first’ things, pictures of him playing and sleeping and hugging Teddy and Bea and sometimes even Mary. Pages turned, and the level of alcohol in Teddy’s glass got lower. Cecil got taller, started wearing glasses, started to look more and more like Mary. His eyes were brown in most of the pictures, although one or two showed a glint of purple. Mary never smiled in any of the pictures she was in; in fact Teddy had never seen her smile at all. None of the drugs or therapies the doctors had tried had really helped her, nothing anyone tried had made her ‘normal’ again – and in a place like Night Vale, for people to think you were weird enough to need medical intervention was really saying something. Still, though, she’d never been mean to Cecil, had never hurt him, and from a fairly young age he’d seemed to understand her, acting like the odd and even disturbing things she did or said were normal things and _reacting_ like they were normal things. Which was sometimes creepy in itself; seeing Cecil giggle like he was being tickled when Mary stared blankly into his eyes had always sent a shiver up Teddy’s spine.

When he was with Bea, though, Cecil had just acted like a mostly normal, average little kid. He played with other kids, he rode Teddy’s old bike, he ran and jumped and occasionally yelled, and he laughed a lot. He was a happy little kid, for the most part, and he grew into a reasonably happy, average teenager. There was a picture of him at his graduation, red cap and gown not very much stained with blood compared to some of his classmates, standing between Bea and Mary with a huge grin on his face while Teddy stood behind them grinning almost as broadly as Cecil and Bea were. Mary wasn’t smiling, but she did have a bloody machete in her hand so at least she’d taken part in the graduation ceremony. Teddy had to smile. He’d only been a doctor for a few years by the time Cecil had graduated, and Cecil’s graduation had been the first one he’d been invited to practice his trade at. It was a good memory.

He turned more pages, knowing he really shouldn’t. Pictures of Cecil doing his college homework at a table in the bowling alley when business was slow, or playing DJ for private parties who wanted dancing to go with their bowling. One particular photo was Teddy’s favorite, a rare picture of Cecil in the college’s sound booth with his earphones around his neck and his brown hair spiked, wearing tinted glasses and a band t-shirt and ripped jeans. He looked like a fish that had just discovered water, completely in his element and happy to stay there; once Cecil had discovered broadcasting, he’d never looked back. Although Teddy knew part of the huge grin had been because Bea was there taking the picture; Cecil had loved his ‘Aunt Bea’ as much as she’d loved him.

It was the last picture she ever took of him, or of anyone else. She died a few months later, right before Cecil finished college, and losing her had decimated him every bit as much as it had Teddy. The two of them had been there for each other while they tried to navigate the empty spot left by her passing. Cecil stuck around until he graduated college, and then he’d announced that he was going on a road trip but that he’d be back by the end of the summer because that was the bowling alley’s busiest time of year. Teddy had been a little sad to see him go, but he knew his cousin – his baby brother, really, in every way that mattered – probably needed to get away and be by himself for a while as much as Teddy sort of wanted to be alone with his grief for a while. And it was only for the summer. One short, solitary summer.

Teddy started to turn the next page, then stopped. He stared at the happy young face under the messy brown hair, and he swallowed hard…and put the album aside, still open. He took his glass back to the counter, drained it, and then brought the bottle back to the chair with him and sat back down. He should really go to sleep now, he knew he should close the album and put it back, put up the bottle and go to bed…but he couldn’t. Somehow _not_ looking at the last two pictures in the album, the only two pictures he’d put in there himself, was worse than just looking at them and getting it over with. He settled the album back in his lap, took a swig from the bottle – luckily, it hadn’t been full to begin with so there really wasn’t all that much left – and turned the last page. Two pictures, pictures he’d pulled from the bowling alley’s security cameras. Pictures from the end of that summer, from the day Cecil had come back home as promised after his road trip.

Teddy sat in the chair with the empty bottle in his hand for a long time, staring at the pictures, and then he put the album back on the shelf and went upstairs and went to bed to dream about them because he hadn’t gotten drunk enough not to.

 

Across town, at the house where Cecil had been playing board – or rather _bored_ – games with Carlos’s assistant Ami for the past few days, Scott had dropped off Carlos and picked up Ami, putting her bicycle in the back of his truck so he could drive her home. Before he left he’d made sure Carlos got into the shower, though, and made sure Cecil didn’t need anything Ami might not have been able to help him with. “Don’t let him try to lift you,” he’d warned Cecil. “You’ll both end up on the floor. I’m amazed he can even raise his arms at this point – Tony can’t.”

“If he’s that bad off in the morning, I’ll have Teddy take another look at him,” Cecil assured him, and shook his head when Scott looked doubtful about that idea. “He wouldn’t go off on Carlos in front of me, no matter how cranky he is.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, Scott, I’ll take care of him – he’s my guy too, you know.”

 “Yeah, I don’t think anyone questions that. Although my wife told me that if we ever do another firefighters’ calendar, she expects your boyfriend to be ‘prominently featured’.”

Cecil laughed. “I don’t know if he’d go for that or not, actually. But you can tell your wife that _I’ll_ only go for it if he’s wearing pants.”

Scott laughed too. “Yeah, she said she didn’t think you’d be willing to share quite that much – she’s not either.” He scratched their kitten’s head when it floated over to him. “Maybe we should just take pictures of puppies and kittens instead, less controversial. Anyway, though, I’m out of here. And if Teddy doesn’t show up in the morning, or if something happens before then, call one of us and we’ll come over to help.”

“Thanks Scott, I will. And thank your wife for sending over the board games.”

“Not a problem, Cecil. The remote for the door still working?” Cecil held it up. “Good. I’ll wait to hear the click before I get in the truck – I saw some cops prowling around out on the streets earlier, god only knows what they’re up to.”  

“Thanks.” Cecil waited until he saw Scott go out and close the door – on the security monitor – and then he used the remote to lock the three locks on the door so nobody else could get in. He _looked_ the other way to make sure nobody who didn’t belong there was in the house, and then he played with the kitten to wear it out before Carlos got out of the shower and came to bed. The kitten liked to play with Carlos, but he wasn’t going to be up for that tonight. Cuddling yes, playing no. Cecil half-smiled to himself. He couldn’t do much, but he could do cuddling – he wanted to do cuddling, in fact, he wanted it a lot, especially after the kind of day they’d all had. And if it would make Carlos feel even a little bit better…well, then that was two good reasons for doing it.

**Author's Note:**

> Weird coincidence: While I was trying to iron the kinks out in this story, we actually ran into a real live person who does the same volunteer job Carlos is doing for the NVFD.


End file.
